9 Months

This month has been so fun! You are just learning so much and growing up so fast. The most exciting highlight of this month has to be TEETH!! Your first two bottom teeth popped through, FINALLY!! I was beginning to think you would never get teeth, so I was very excited to see them!

Another thing I just love, is that you have started waving and saying "hi". It is the cutest thing EVER!! You just flirt with anyone you see. You wave to them and say "hi" and they think you are the cutest baby on the planet (which you are)! You have also started clapping! This is something I have also been waiting for, I just think it is so cute when little kids clap. Even though you don't really make any sounds with your clapping yet, it is still adorable.

Our apartment is all one level, so we don't have stairs. However, your grandma and grandpa's house does have stairs, and since grandma and grandpa watch you a lot, your new obsession is climbing up stairs. You can't climb down them yet, so you can imagine that climbing up them is a scary thing for mommy to watch you do. The other day daddy was helping you learn to climb up the stairs and he was a little too far away and you fell down three stairs. You did not get too badly hurt, but it was such a scary thing. Now that you are older and trying new things, we need to watch you so much more carefully.

Your personality blossoms more and more every month and it is so fun to watch. You are such a good baby and we love experiencing your growth and development. You know exactly what you want and you want to try to do everything yourself. We love you so much baby girl!

Underneath is a picture that illustrates how hard it was to get a good picture this month (that's why her monthly picture, above, is a blue steel kind of face). HaHa. Isn't that just the cutest, sadest little face you have ever seen? =D

8 Months

8 MONTHS OLD! Wow. This month has been busy, busy, busy! And to go right along with that, you are such a busy, busy baby. You are moving and wiggling non-stop, sometimes I don't think I can keep up with you (I can't imagine what kind of toddler you are going to be).

You learned how to crawl this month, yay! However, if there is something that you want and it is really far away, you will crawl a few feet then plop back down on your belly and scoot to it. For some reason you think scooting is still the fastest way to get around. But as the days go on you crawl more and more and more. You have also started pulling up on furniture (oh my), which means you fall down and bonk your head a lot. :(

Your communication skills are developing more as well. You started saying "dada" this month after daddy spend an ENTIRE day saying it over and over to you. Now you say is all the time. You still say "mama" but only when you are sad and crying, you say "dada" when you are happy and playing...I don't quite know what that means. :)

Since you were 1 month old you have been watching Baby Signing Time and I have been using sign language with you. Since then daddy and I have been so excited for you to learn your first sign, and this is the month it happened. You can sign "milk" now! We love watching you sign it, even if you sign it all day long for things that have nothing to do with milk, we still love it! We are excited to see which signs you start using next.

You are still sleeping great! You love soft, fuzzy blankets and stuffed animals and you will not go to sleep unless you have your green fuzzy blanket. You love your binky and sometimes I catch you playing 3 binkies at once. You love flapping your arms and you get excited about everything. We went on a 2 week long vacation this month, and you were such a good traveler, we were so proud of you. You got to see Uncle Tyler and Aunt Landan get married and you looked so cute in your wedding party dress. You went to your 5th state capital this month, your 13th state, and Canada. You are such a great baby Eleanor and we feel so blessed to have you! We love you so much!

Look at her standing up!! I can't believe she is getting so big! Getting a good picture was so difficult this month because Eleanor just does NOT hold still. Seriously, she wont hold still for 2 seconds. However, that makes for some funny pictures, even if they wouldn't work for her monthly picture I thought I would share them anyways. She just cracks me up! =D

THE MANY FACES OF ELEANOR:

7 Months

7 months!! Wow! This month has been such a blast. It is so fun to watch your personality develop and watch you learn new things every single day. My favorite thing you have started doing this month is saying "mama"! Most of the time it is when you cry you say "ma ma ma ma ma ma" over and over again. No, I do not think you know that "mama" means me, but I like to imagine you are calling for me anyways. You have also started saying "baba" a lot, and someone recently told us that "baba" mean dad in Chinese, so Peter doesn't feel as left out.

Another exciting thing you have started doing this month is getting up on all fours! Yay! You get up on your hands and knees and just rock back and forth, back and forth. Then, when it is time for you to move, you plop right back down on your belly and army crawl wherever it is you want to go. And let me tell you, you have gotten so good at army crawling, you are so fast!

I think you have been growing quite a bit, because you sleep so much lately. You will sleep 12 to 14 hours a night, every night. Then you take 2 or 3 naps during the day all between 2 and 3 hours each. You are a growing girl! You eat anything we give you and love to try grown up food. I keep telling you that you can try more foods if you get some teeth, but so far there are no teeth to be found.

You are EXTREMELY adorable and make mommy and daddy laugh all day every day. We seriously love playing with you and love talking to you all day. You make life so fun and exciting and we love having you in our family. We always say if all our babies could be exactly like you, we would have a ton more. Then we think or maybe we should just quit while we're ahead. We love you so much sweet girl!!

5 & 6 Months

Wow, I have been neglecting my blogging duties BIG time. Things have been so crazy lately. Peter and I went to San Francisco, then we went to Tennessee for 10 days, and then when we got home we had no internet for quite awhile. So, I am going to have to catch you up on two months of Eleanor's life.

Wow, it seems like so long ago that you were only 4 months old. You have progressed and learned so much since then.

You are definitely on the move now! You "army crawl" all around the room chasing toys and you can sit up all by yourself...until you topple over. If you are too tired to army crawl but you want something, no problem, you will just steam roll your body across the room to get it. I have a feeling from now on there is absolutely no stopping you.

Ever since you were born you have been coughing, but you have never had a cough. You fake cough all the time and we just roll our eyes and tell you that you don't have a cough and to quit it silly girl. However, I think we have finally figured out why you cough so much. Your daddy started beat boxing to you since the day you were born, and many of the sounds he makes when he is beat boxing sound like he is coughing. The other day daddy started beat boxing to you and you started coughing right along with his beat, and we made the connection. We don't have a baby who pretends she is sick all the time, we actually have a beat boxing baby!

You are rocking the solids and love every single taste that enters your mouth. You like fruit more the veggies, so if we give you the fruit first, you aren't too happy once we switch to veggies. But so far you are a great eater. You babble and babble and babble and have started to add inflection which makes it sound like you are telling us all a really important story, it is so cute! You love playing with toys and love playing with your toes even more. You have started to discover off limit things around the apartment, like the DVD player and the cords and light switches, which has made us realize that we need to baby proof our house very quickly.

You smile non-stop and you are such a well-behaved baby. People are always very impressed at how calm and happy you are and some are even convinced that we have installed an "off" button. HaHa. People love holding you and playing with you until you spit up all over them, then they quickly give you back to me. Though the spit up is terrible and not showing any signs of getting better, I just can't be upset about it when you flash a huge smile right after spitting up all over me.

I think my absolute FAVORITE thing that you have started doing is when you give me kisses. I will kiss your cheek and then look at you and ask if you will give mommy kisses. You excitedly open your mouth wide and  put it right on my cheek, it seriously melts my heart every single time (except the time where you spit up at the exact same time all over my face...). And after you have done it once, you want to give me like a million more kisses after that, you think it is the funnest game, and so do I!

We are so grateful to have such an amazing baby, we love watching you grow and learn so much. Every day with you is an adventure and you are teaching me so much baby girl. We thank Heavenly Father for you every single day and we can't imagine our lives without you.

Weight: 15.8 lbs. (44th percentile)

Height: 27.3 in. (94th percentile)

"Solids"

Eleanor had her 4 month doctor's appointment yesterday. She is doing great and right on track with everything which made me really happy! =D I had heard that it was recommended that babies wait until they are 6 months old to eat solids. I always planned on giving her solids before 6 months, but I didn't think the doctor would talk about solids at her 4 month appointment. However, he recommended that we start introducing solids into her diet. Eleanor has been really interested in "big people" food for a few weeks now, and we have put a spoon in her mouth a few times to see if she would push it back out with her tongue and she didn't, so I knew she was ready. So, today I went out and bought some jars of baby food and some rice cereal. This is how it went:

I think she was a little confused and skeptical at first...

But in the end she did great, and she was happy and full!! =D

I also have a video of her first reactions to the cereal...but for some reason it wont let me upload it...so I will try to add it later, it's pretty dang cute!!

4 Months

Wow, time is flying!! This month was the month of attitude. You know what you want baby girl and you are not afraid to scream bloody murder if you don't get it RIGHT when you want it. I'm starting to see a blossoming personality and it is really fun to watch.

You are getting your first tooth! Which means, you are drooling all over everything all the time...lovely. You are still eating and sucking on your hands, but you are also grabbing and holding toys now so you love to suck on those too. Basically, everything goes in your mouth...always. You can't grab or hold anything small yet, but soon we are going to have to worry about choking...not looking forward to that.

You learned to roll from your back to your tummy this month. You have also started scooting more and more. With all this new found motion, you have become extremely wiggly. When we feed you, you arch your back and make it almost impossible to hold the bottle in your mouth without you tumbling onto the floor onto your head. You just want to get up and go so badly. You have also started holding the bottle by yourself though you don't quite have the coordination to keep it in your mouth for very long. This creates a battle the entire time we are feeding you. You want to hold it so badly, but then scream and flail when it drops out of your mouth. Even when you are not trying to hold it you are so wiggly your hands end up knocking it out of your mouth anyways, which results in more screaming. We finally have to end up pinning your arms to your chest just to finish feeding you. You are just trying to grow up too dang fast.

You are interested in everything that is going on around you, even the tv. Your daddy and I were watching Toy Story 2 the other night and you couldn't take your eyes off of it. Whenever Jessie the Cowgirl came on the screen you would giggle and giggle, it was so cute. I can't believe you are already understanding and reacting to things like that.

You can seriously babble and gibber-gabber for hours now. I'll be cooking dinner, doing chores, blogging, etc...and you just lay there all by yourself talking up a storm. I don't know if you have imaginary friends or you just love talking to yourself, but it is so funny! I will miss your babbling so much when you  learn to talk, it seriously puts a smile on my face all day long.

Raising you is so fun baby girl, and even if your screaming makes me want to pull out my hair sometimes, one smile from you makes it all worth it! I love being your mommy so much!

Weight: 13.6 lbs. (33rd percentile)
Height: 25 in. (68th percentile)

(I know this is a different onesie, but she ended up spitting up all over the first one, so we had to change. Ha.)

 Don't let the first picture of this post fool you. Most of the pictures of this wiggly girl turned out like this.

Putting EVERYTHING in her mouth!

1 Month          2 Months          3 Months

Giggling and Rolling Over

Oh my...she is growing up so fast, I can't even believe it.

Isn't this just the cutest?! =D

3 Months

 My baby girl,

You have really grown up a lot this month. Seriously, sometimes I look at you and wonder what happened to my little baby. Your face is so much more grown up and you act like you know exactly what is going on at all times. Now, when you babble, it sounds like you have something really important to say and you need everyone to pay attention. It is so cute.

Your absolute favorite thing to do is look at, play with, suck on, and eat your hands. I can put you down on your boppy and you will just lay there looking at your hands for hours...it's great. =D You especially like to examine them while I am signing to you, I expect your first sign will happen soon.

You are still sleeping great! Between 9 and 11 hours a night. However, your naps aren't as productive as they use to be. You love to be swaddled, in fact you will not sleep without being swaddled. Problem is, you are getting too big for your swaddlers now, so you are constantly breaking out of them and waking yourself up. I guess it is time to wean you off your swddlers...but I think it might be a long and nightmare-ish process. (If anyone has any suggestions on how to transition from swaddling to not swaddling, that would be wonderful!) You are smiling SO much now...especially when we come to get you out of your crib, you flash the hugest, cutest smile, it makes my heart melt.

You learned to roll over this month! However, you only do it when you want to. One day you rolled over, tummy to back right and left, about 12 times. We were sure you would be rolling over all the time after that. But then we would try and show your trick to other people and you refused to do it. Now, you just roll over every once in awhile when you want to...I am not even convinced you really know how to do it, I think it just happens sometimes. HaHa.

You got your cast off this month (hopefully for good) and your foot is looking a lot better. You also went on two vacations. We went to Bryce Canyon for Peter and I's two year anniversary and you did so great. We got a little front backpack thing and hiked with you. You just slept the entire time, I think you loved being so close and snuggly with daddy. Your second vacation was to Arizona to see Savanna (former roommate) get married. On the way home you got to go to Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater Volcano, Wupatki, The Grand Canyon, and Four Corners. You have already been to 4 states in 3 months! We had tons of fun, even though you weren't very happy some of the time, all-in-all you were wonderfully behaved.

You seriously light up our lives little girl. We love having you in our family even though everything in our house, including us, is constantly covered in spit-up. We love you more than you will ever know.

1 Week       3 Weeks       1 Month       2 Months

Eleanor's Baby Blessing

Sunday (February 19th) was a wonderful day for our little family. First of all, it was Peter and I's two year anniversary! I can't believe it has already been two years. Secondly, we had Eleanor blessed at church. It was an amazing day filled with happiness, family, and friends! Peter gave Eleanor a beautiful blessing and it was so fun to celebrate with that blessing with the people we love.

Sometimes it is really hard to get a 2-month old to take a happy picture. Even though she is not smiling in any of these, she is still super cute!! =D

I promise, she really is a happy child!!

I LOVE the yawning picture! She is such a doll.

After the blessing we had a little lunch back at my apartment. Thank you to Ashley, Erika, Tyler and especially Kathie (Peter's mom) for all your help with the lunch! It turned out really cute and really yummy!! Thank you so much to everyone who took time to come to Eleanor's blessing, we really appreciate it. And to those who weren't able to make it (mainly my family) thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers, we missed you. We love you all!

YUM! =D

We had a table with sweets, pictures and little things related to Eleanor's life so far. That is her very first cast...I can't believe she has grown so much already!

Thank you Janssen for the cute garland idea!

Idea from: this blog via pinterest

We used her cast as the guestbook for everyone to sign. It makes it much more colorful and fun! =D

Eleanor is such a blessing in our lives. She has the sweetest little spirit and bring us so much joy. I can't imagine our lives without her and I am so glad we are blessed enough to raise such an amazing little girl. We love her so much and thank Heavenly Father for her every single day.

2 Months

This month has been so fun! You are really starting to develop a personality and it is a blast to watch. You make a new noise every single day and have started babbling more and more. You love to gurgle and squeal. You also love to copy mommy and daddy when we stick our tongues out at you, it is so cute. This month you started sleeping between 7 and 10 (that has only happened once and it was wonderful) hours at night and we absolutely love you for it. You have also started to consciously smile at us, yay! You smile at daddy a lot more than you smile at mommy, especially when he speaks French to you. We think your first word will most likely be a French word, you seem to love it.

Sadly, you had to go get that darned cast back on your leg and this time you hated it so much. You cried harder and louder than you have ever cried before and made mommy want to cry right along with you. Fortunately, you got use to the cast within a few days and now you are enjoying your scooting powers again. We frequently go into your room to find you have scooted all the way into the corner of your crib and have gotten stuck there.

You spit up constantly, hence the spit up spot in the picture above, and your favorite times to spit up are right after I get you dressed for the day, and right after I finish giving you a bath. You eat between 4 and 6 ounces every 3 to 4 hours and you have the cutest cheeks and double chin to show for it. You love music and calm right down when I sing to you. You are starting to focus on our faces more and more and love looking at black and white pictures and shapes. You are so fun to cuddle with and frequently take naps in the lazy boy with mommy or daddy because we just don't want to go put you in your crib.

We are excited to get you blessed soon and love watching you grow more and more every day. We don't know what we would do without you, we love you so much!

Weight: 11 pounds 5 ounces - 53rd percentile
Height: 22.25 inches - 41st percentile
Head: 15.5 inches - 84th percentile

1 Month post

The Cast: Update

In my last post about Eleanor's cast I was very excited because she was going to have to wear the cast for 3 weeks, but after 2 weeks the doctor said she didn't have to get a third cast. I was finally going to have a little baby with proportional limbs and I would stop getting looks from people that said "That woman let her newborn break her leg, what a terrible mother". Things were wonderful. The doctor said he wanted to see her back in one month to check her progress.

Well, one month was yesterday. Sadly, my little baby girl came home from that appointment with another cast. I was seriously so upset when the doctor said we needed to cast her for another 3 weeks. Part of me is really angry that the doctor didn't just put the 3rd cast on her to begin with...but I know he is just trying to do what is best for her. Last time I talked about what an angel Eleanor was while getting the cast on; there was nothing angelic about the second time around. It took everything in me not to cry while they were putting it on her, she just wailed and wailed, it was awful. Thankfully, she fell asleep on the car ride home. Then, I went to book club and left her with Peter. When she woke up she started right up where she left off, poor Peter, and just screamed and screamed and screamed.

It is so sad. Eleanor LOVES to kick her feet and she LOVES putting weight on her legs and standing up on our laps, she can't do that anymore, and it is so frustrating for her.

The worst part about all this is, the doctor said the risk with this 3 weeks is it might not change anything. He says she will most likely have problems with her foot in her adult life if we can't correct it more, and this casting is the last chance to correct it, and it might not do anything. That is my biggest fear, that she might be going through all this for no change at all. However, Peter keeps reminding me that we will really regret it if we didn't do everything possible to try and correct it now, so I think we are doing the right thing. It's just so hard to watch her go through this, but I know it will all work out. I just love her so much!

We waited like 2 and a half hours before the doctor came in to see us. This was before we found out the news, hence Peter's smile. Doesn't Eleanor look so tiny on that big table? :)

Before they casted her leg, they told me to undress her down to her diaper. So I did. Then, they made us wait like 25 minutes before they casted her, so she was freezing. Peter was nice enough to share his suit jacket.

And here it is. At least they let us do purple this time instead of boring white.

 She is just so cute...cast and all!

Twins?

Tyler holding Eleanor

Tyler (my brother) holding me

My grandma and me

Eleanor's Grannie and her

My daddy and me

Eleanor and her daddy

Me sleeping

Eleanor sleeping

What do you think? Do we look alike?